After years of dialog on mobile convergence, what has actually converged on the mobile platform is the high quality experience, spurred by innovations in
Media Content (Video, Music, Movies, T.V.), Applications (software, Operating Systems), Device Technologies (micro-processors, touch screens, system on chip radios, motion sensors) and Networks (GPRS, CDMA, LTE, WiMAX, WiFI).

Media content has grown with consumers watching TV and movies, playing games, listening to music, getting their news, or, getting directions, all from their cell phones. Innovations in digital rights management, media file exchange capability, business partnership models by Hollywood-based entertainment firms, media-store-and-forward technology, P2P, etc., has resulted in such consumers now expecting all the above forms of media content on their mobile device. The creators and owners of content have now a better grasp on revenue models with the device and network providers. This sophisticated advancement in the business of media content in combination with the technology have started to create convergence and success in mobile entertainment media content generation, distribution and consumption.

Applications, tailored specifically to mobile devices, are now being developed at a pace never before seen. The success of Apple's App Store which resulted in 500 million application downloads in 6 months of its introduction shows that there is a pent-up demand for mobile applications if the entire experience ranging from developing to buying to distributing to using it is painless. If one considers the App Store to be an enterprise operating system, it takes the meaning of the operating system to a different level. On the flip side is the open operating system, Android, from Google, which provides a relatively unrestricted environment for development or distribution, and opens the mobile platform to any kind of consumer or business applications developer. With the opening up of segments of the 700 MHz spectrum, an open operating system offers yet another alternative towards more advanced applications. Even though these two operating systems are very different, ranging from the open architecture style of Google to the walled garden style of the iPhone, the resulting experience for the user seems to be converging towards a common style of interface, device form factor, usage modality, network connection, etc.

For the application developer, the result of such seamless convergence in hardware and in software is the creation of a new way of doing commerce, whereby anyone who has an idea for an application - consumer or enterprise - can set up an entire business with the click of a few buttons. This represents one facet of the generation 2.0 of the Mobile Experience.

The other facet of Mobile Experience 2.0 is for the user - consumer or enterprise - and this includes simple download and ease of use of the application. There is still a significant difference between the consumer - whose needs demand media centric content, versus the enterprise user - who requires features such as security and reliability. This dichotomy continues to create two almost distinct paths of innovation on the mobile platform and it remains to be seen if the two will converge.

Device technology, such as touch-screen, motion sensors, high speed 3G networks, miniaturized GPS, miniaturized stereo audio, or, integrated radio chipsets, has spurred a phenomenal increase in the complexity and capability in a new generation of devices every year. With the increase in the pace of innovation in new technologies has come the ability to integrate entire systems, such as integrating system on a single chip, thereby allowing a rapid convergence in the hardware itself, resulting in hardware mobile terminals converging and becoming increasingly similar at the high-end.

Networks, whether GSM-based, CDMA-based, WiMAX-based or LTE-based, are steadily converging towards 3G. They are tending towards a generic I.P. framework which allows transport of media content and applications in the same manner as the Internet and allows WLANs such as Wi-Fi to be seamlessly integrated with them. This Wireless Internet will continue to become more dense, flexible, more cost effective and efficient and with constantly increasing bandwidth. Eventually with multi-band radios, software-defined radios and multi-protocol transmission, it will not matter which network a device is on.

The future of the mobile experience will continue to add more device technology - such as ultra high performance computing, low power displays, and, voice recognition - driving new and unique applications. Convergence will allow such technologies to be assimilated and integrated rapidly into the existing devices and infrastructure. This forum brings together media companies, application developers, device manufacturers, networking and O.S. companies together with academics and government to discuss the present and future of Mobile Experience, Version 2.0 in an open Forum at UCLA.